India's Aurobindo Pharma recently laid out plans to build three new plants in India in the next three years. The drugmaker also intends to bulk up capacity at a bulk drug plant and got the OK from India's environmental regulator for the fourfold expansion.
Aurobindo plans on spending 300 crore ($46.3 million) to increase the capacity of its API plant in Telangana, The Economic Times reports. The drugmaker told the Environment Ministry it intends to boost capacity to 421.2 tons per month from the 96 tons per month it currently produces.
Based on a recommendation of the Expert Appraisal Committee, The Economic Times said the agency gave the project the go-ahead, but with provisions. The ministry wants Aurobindo to monitor air quality around the plant to make sure it meets State Pollution Control Board standards. It was asked to process organic waste and store fly ash separately to reduce its effects on air quality. And to protect the surrounding area, the company was told to put a 24.5-acre, 10-meter-wide buffer zone around the project.
In August, Aurobindo reported it intended to invest about 900 crore ($137 million) next year toward three new plants. That is to include work on an oral solid finished dosages facility at Naidupeta, an oral finished dosage facility in Visakhapatnam, and a semisynthetic penicillin plant at Jadcherla, near Hyderabad.
- read the Economic Times story